Until 2010, the Dutch ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport will fund a nationwide project to identify the approximately 40,000 patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) in the Netherlands. The Health Care Insurance Board will coordinate the project and safeguard its quality, while the 'Stichting Opsporing Erfelijke Hypercholesterolemie' [Foundation for the Detection of Hereditary Hypercholesterolaemia], with its national network of genetic fieldworkers, will search systematically within families with assessed FH-mutations...

BACKGROUND: Whether or not preoperative brachiocephalic angiography with left internal mammary artery (LIMA) visualization should be performed at the time of coronary angiography in patients in whom bypass grafting using LIMA is envisaged is still debated. We sought to assess the role of the routine brachiocephalic angiography artery in preventing the coronary-subclavian steal syndrome in patients who are candidates for bypass grafting using LIMA. METHODS: Medical records of 110 patients (mean age 69...

In the Netherlands, people with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) have been actively screened since 1994 by means of DNA analysis. Recently, the Stichting Opsporing Erfelijke Hypercholesterolemie (Foundation for the Detection of Familial Hypercholesterolaemia) initiated a large scale-screening programme aimed at finding all 40,000 people. The Dutch ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is providing the financial support. Genetic screening has social implications and raises questions on insurability. The Dutch Medical Examination Act prohibits insurers from posing questions about untreatable, serious inheritable conditions for insured sums under a certain value: for life-insurance policies < [symbol: see text] 150,000 and for disability-cover policies < [symbol: see text] 30,000 in the 1st year and < [symbol: see text] 20,000 in the 2nd year and following years...

Using DNA sequencing of the coding and exon flanking regions of the low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene we identified an Alw26 I site in exon 10 by a transition G142A. The alleles are represented by one uncut fragment (A1=108bp) or two fragments (A2=82bp and 26 pb). Two other fragments (72bp and 16bp) were systematically found within the amplified product. The alleles were detected in 157 unrelated French Caucasians with A1 frequency = 0.58 and A2=0.42. The observed heterozygoty was 44.5%. Homozygous familial hypercholesterolemie (FH) has a severe clinical picture leading to death during childhood...

PURPOSE: To study whether pravastatin maintain its therapeutic effect when the treatment is indicated to patients with hypercholesterolemy associated to others risk factors. METHODS: In a multicenter investigation 1147 patients, mostly male (609) with a mean age of 52 years were enrolled. The inclusion criteria were cholesterol level above 260 mg/dL or 220 mg/dL if LDL-C greater than 145 mg/dL and one or more risk factors. The patients were treated for 16 weeks, in the first four only with diet orientation and with diet plus 10 mg of pravastatin in the 12 subsequent weeks...

Omega-3 fatty acids (n-3) found specially on fish oil are represented by the acid alfa-linolenic, eicosapeniaenoic and docosahexaenoic. After 72 hours of n-3 fatty acids intake there are changes on membrane composition and decrease of synthesis of prostaglandin (PG), leucotriens (LT) and thromboxanes (TX) of the 2 and 4 series production and substitution for prostaglandin, thromboxanes and leucotriens of 3 and 5 series respectively. These alterations can modulate the inflammatory response in some diseases. N-3 fatty acid have been used in cardiology on hypercholesterolemy and hypertension control and on immunologic diseases as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn disease...

The study of a population of 79 obese people (62 women and 17 men) allowed to find out, and to specify a certain number of data shown through questionning, clinical examination and biological observations: the predominance of female application for weight regression treatments; the much more important number of major overweight with men; the idea of a "certain" age after which the micrease in weight is less important; the relation between the weigth after birth and overweight; the relation between how long you been futting on weight and the importance of your overweight; the frequency of overweight among your relatives...